Page 30 of Defending Love
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Eli
“ W hy did you change clothes?” Dani asked, looking up from her computer screen.
My comfortable attire was replaced by a black suit. “Your brother is paying for a bodyguard.”
Dani’s sexy smile grew as she stood and came closer. Her navy eyes swirled with multiple shades of blue, the churning of a turbulent sea. She reached for the lapels of my suit coat, pushed up on her tiptoes, and brought her lips to mine. “Are you saying that I can’t do that when Damien is here?”
“Probably not.” My hands went to her waist as I held her at arm’s length. “I want to talk to Damien for a few minutes.”
Dani pursed her lips. “You’re not going to accuse him of killing Dad.”
“I don’t intend to accuse him. I simply have some questions that I hope he can answer.”
“Like what?”
Letting go of her waist, I contemplated what I could or should say. Ben’s call divulged more than the information about the handwriting.
When my gaze met hers, Dani placed a fist against her hip.
“Eli, there are many things I value in a relationship. It doesn’t matter if it’s a friendship, a sexual relationship, or what I share with my brother.
Above all, the most important is honesty.
This morning you talked about where this” —she motioned between the two of us— “is going. I want it to go beyond your assignment. However, I don’t care how great the sex is, I have to trust that you’ll be honest with me. ”
“You’ve accused me of wrongfully thinking the worst of Damien. You’re right. The facts keep piling up in a way it’s difficult to overlook.”
“What facts?”
“He and the attorney opened your dad’s safe.”
“To find Dad’s will and insurance papers.”
“They had access to place the damning letter we found.”
She crossed her arms over her breasts. “I spoke to Damien about the safe. He’d forgotten he’d even opened the safe.”
“The latent fingerprints on the letter.”
“Have they confirmed they’re Damien’s?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. That’s one of my questions, to ask him for a fingerprint sample. Also, he had access to your and your parents’ electronics. The virus was being sent to the Indianapolis area.”
“Again, nearly two million other possibilities. And they were on his electronics too.”
“A good way to throw us off.”
I inhaled.
“Okay, the most damning is a recent five-million-dollar withdrawal from his crypto account.”
Her arms dropped to her side. “A five-million-dollar withdrawal, when?”
“Ten days before your father was shot.”
Taking two steps, I moved closer, cupping her soft cheek.
“Dani, you wanted honesty. That’s the God’s honest truth.
I asked Ben to run a check on Darius’s and Damien’s financials.
Guardian didn’t even know about Damien’s crypto account last year.
I’m not sure if he had it and we missed it, or it’s new.
The point is that he took half of the value from the account. ”
Dani took a step back. “I can’t believe what you’re saying.”
“You don’t want to believe it. There’s a difference.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Let’s think this through. Did Damien reinvest it somewhere?”
Inhaling, I nodded. “I didn’t ask. Maybe Damien can shed some light on the subject.”
The uncertainty in her blue orbs caused my chest to ache. I wanted to take that doubt away and give her back the life she had—no, more than that, the life we could have together.
The ring of her doorbell echoed through the condominium.
“You can ask questions,” she said matter-of-factly, “but I’m going to be present. I want to hear what he says.”
I nodded. “Let me answer the door.”
“You don’t honestly think Damien is going to pull a gun on me in my own home.”
I didn’t think he would. I was more concerned that he wasn’t the person who would show. Removing my gun from the holster, I walked to the door, ready to meet face-to-face with our FBI frauds.
“Eli,” Damien said. His gaze quickly moved to the gun in my lowered hand and back to me. “What the hell?”
“You hired him,” Dani said jokingly, coming from behind me. “We’re a bit on edge.”
“Why, has something new happened?”
Dani led her brother inside. “My refrigerator is pretty bare. Can I get you anything to drink?”
“No, I’ve already had too much coffee,” Damien said, watching as I secured my gun in my holster. “Tell me what has you unnerved.”
Dani sat on the sofa where last night she’d had her feet in my lap. Damien took a chair near the window, leaving me to either sit with Dani or opposite Damien. I chose the latter.
“We had some excitement in Florida,” Dani began. She went on to tell him about the FBI men who visited the villa.
To his credit, Damien seemed rightfully appalled and concerned. He turned to me. “You reported them, right?”
I shook my head. “No. I didn’t want to tip them off that we knew they were impostors.”
“Well, fuck, Dani. No wonder you came home a day early.” He leaned back, crossing his ankle over his knee. “I don’t get it. You said someone took all of Dad’s journals from his desk but didn’t take anything from his safe.”
“We thought maybe they didn’t know about the safe until we opened it. As for missing, I don’t know if anything was missing,” Dani said. “I just know it contained items.”
“Where are the contents you found?”
Dani pointed to the hallway with her office and my assigned bedroom. “I brought it all home. I’ve been going through the journals…”
Fuck, I wished that my earlier declarations would have caused her to be more cautious with what she was sharing. As she stood, I wanted to stop her. It was too late; she offered to show Damien what we’d discovered.
I followed the two of them a step behind, seething as they entered her office.
“…here are the journals we found in the safe,” she said, pointing to the stack on her desk. “And in here” —she lifted the blue and white striped bag— “are the other things.”
Damien reached for the bag and lifted it to Dani’s desk.
“We’ve been wearing gloves when we touched anything,” Dani said, looking at me.
I pulled two pairs from my pocket. “Here you go.”
“Why?” Damien asked.
I was the one to answer. “Someone from Guardian is coming later today to dust everything for prints. We want to know who had access to his safe.”
“We did,” Damien said, nodding his head to Dani. “Mom and Dad did.”
“And Elliott,” Dani said.
Damien’s eyebrows came together. “He didn’t know the combination. I opened the safe for him.”
Dani spoke. “I thought you didn’t remember opening it.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t until you reminded me.”
“Did you find what you were looking for?” I asked.
“Stephen wanted to be sure Dad didn’t have an old version of his will. There was a clause about selling Sinclair that was removed when Dad’s will was redone last year.”
“Was there an old version?” I asked.
Damien shook his head. “We cleared the whole thing out. The only thing we found that was relevant at the time were his life insurance policies.” He turned to Dani. “As I recall, you were at the house with us.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think I was. I don’t remember the two of you going through the safe.”
“No,” he said. “You were at the hospital with Mom. I remember because you called me to tell me she was out of surgery.”
“You cleared out the safe?” I asked. “So your fingerprints will be found on all of that.” I pointed to the bag.
“Yeah, I suppose. Mine and Stephen’s. Once we found what we needed, we put everything back. I locked it up and forgot about it until recently.”
Covering his hands with the gloves, Damien reached into the bag. The box clanked with the sound of coins. He grinned. “Dad loved his coin collection.”
One by one, he removed things from the bag and placed them on Dani’s desk.
“Do you see anything new?” she asked. “Or is anything missing that you recall.”
“Like I said that whole trip is a blur.” He stared at the contents. “I think there was a photo album.”
“I left that with Mom,” Dani volunteered.
“This trip down memory lane is nice,” Damien said, “but Dani and I need to discuss the executive board meeting tomorrow.”
Her blue gaze met mine. “Eli can stay.”
“No offense,” Damien said, “but it’s a private matter.”
“None taken.” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the wall. “Forget I’m here.”
“Dani,” Damien protested.